How to truly #DefundPlannedParenthood …

Unless you have been living under a rock the last few months, you know there is an ongoing battle to defund Planned Parenthood on the state and national level in the legislatures. As the lawmakers return from their month of recess, the rhetoric on both sides will undoubtedly escalate. I am generally an optimistic person, but do not see any meaningful measures on Capitol Hill happening soon. That said, there are a number of measures that can be taken that will impact Planned Parenthood far more than removing $528 million of taxpayer funds (from last released PP financials).

Planned Parenthood has the luxury of a “triple-funding” model. Their funds come from 1) Government funding 2)Payment for services and 3)Corporate and Individual donors. As citizens who are slowly losing their voice in government, it remains to be seen whether the first stream of funding will be impacted. However the second and third can be largely impacted by people like you and I. Here’s how:

Removing Stream #2: This one is accomplished in two ways. First, it is accomplished by your getting involved in one of the thousands of other free and reduced community clinics and centers that provide health services. Either by donating time, energy, or financially to the work that they do to truly help women with health needs. This also includes your local community pregnancy centers that help with testing, parent education/mentoring, and even supplies for the new babies. Secondly, this stream of revenue depends on an uninformed and scared public. If Christians can be concerned for young ladies in our communities, stand beside them and show them the love of Christ, many of the ladies that feel so isolated and alone will never enter the doors of PP.

Removing Stream #3: America is a consumer society that has choices. We can choose how our money is spent. In corporate america, people vote with their wallets. There are several donor lists that have leaked out of PP. Even the smaller list has some major companies. In the past, Christians have been vilified over boycotts. What I am speaking of is calmly letting companies that donate to planned parenthood know that “because you donate, I will be spending my money with one of your competitors that is not donating to PP” . If this is done on a large scale, the message will eventually be heard.

We have some great options in America. For example, Starbucks is on the corporate donor list. Instead of buying packaged coffee from Starbucks, we could choose to support a company called Kingdom Growers. They work with coffee farmers in Honduras to provide direct marketing of their products so that the farmers will receive higher profit margins to allow them to feed their families, educate their children, and improve their standard of basic needs. The relationships built also are fostering church planting in the region. You can read more about them here. I will be the first to tell you that it is a good tasting, quality coffee.

Do not buy the lie that you cannot do anything in this battle. We as a nation must choose life. It is that simple, but it is not going to be easy.